St Richard's Dominican Friary, Pontefract - 1256-1538

St Richard's Dominican Friary, Pontefract - 1256-1538. . St Richard's Friary was founded by Edmund de Lacy, Baron of Pontefract in 1256, and dedicated to his friend and confessor, Richard Wych, Bishop of Chichester. When Edmund died in 1257 his heart was buried in the Church, also the bodies of Richard Duke of York and his son Edmund Earl of Rutland after the Battle of Wakefield in 1460, during the Wars of the Roses. Members of other noble and prominent families were buried at this friary. and many townsfolk left legacies to the friars for burial here. By 1538 the Friary comprised a large church cloister, dormitory, chapterhouse refectory, kitchens, lavatories, and guest accommodation. The number of friars varied from 29 to 36 at different times. This reconstruction of what we think the Friary looked like from this viewpoint in about 1400 has been drawn by Ron Wilson and is based on evidence from excavations by Pontefract and District Archaeological Society in 1963 just before extensions to Pontefract General Infirmary were built, and in 2011 and 2012, after it was demolished., Pontefract Black Friars , The Dominicans, or Black Friars, arrived in England 1221 and their mission was to preach and counter-heresy. The Black Friars owned nothing, and were given the Friary site stone, builders, food, clothing and all else. Giving to the Friars was an act of Christian charity. The Pontefract Black Friars preaching territory extended beyond Pontefract; there is evidence of them preaching the Crusade in 1291 at Rotherham and Wakefield., The de Lacy family , Ilbert de Lacy was given extensive lands in the North of England by William the Conqueror in return for services during the Norman Conquest, and he built Pontefract Castle from around 1070. His descendant, John de Lacy, 2nd Earl of Lincoln (1192-1240) was one of the 23 barons who forced King John into accepting Magna Carta at Runnymede in 1215. His son Edmund de Lacy (1230 1258) founded St Richard's Friary in 1256., Demolition of St Richard's Friary , After Henry VIII's Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1538, St Richard's Friary was completely demolished and its contents and building materials sold. Friarwood Valley reverted to agricultural use, later becoming liquorice fields. Pontefract Dispensary was built on the site in 1880, and the General Infirmary developed across the valley over the next 130 years. Pontefract General Infirmary closed in March 2011 and was demolished soon afterwards; only the original Dispensary survives. The remains of St Richard's Friary lie below the demolished former hospital.